BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Senator Carole Migden, Chair S
2005-2006 Regular Session B
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SB 1742 (Machado) 2
As Introduced February 24, 2006
Hearing date: April 25, 2006
Welfare and Institutions Code
JD:br
DIVISION OF JUVENILE JUSTICE: COMMITMENTS
HISTORY
Source: Author
Prior Legislation: None
Support: Youth Law Center; Chief Probation Officers of
California; Commonweal; California Public Defenders
Association
Opposition:None known
KEY ISSUES
SHOULD MANDATORY ACCEPTANCE OF JUVENILE COMMITMENTS BY THE DIVISION
OF JUVENILE JUSTICE BE NARROWED TO REQUIRE NOT JUST "ADEQUATE
FACILITIES" BUT ADEQUATE "STAFF AND PROGRAMS" AS WELL?
SHOULD THE LEGISLATURE REPEAL EXISTING PROVISIONS THAT SPECIFY WHICH
INDIVIDUALS MUST BE ACCEPTED BY THE DIVISION OF JUVENILE JUSTICE
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SB 1742 (Machado)
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ACCORDING TO SPECIFIED MENTAL HEALTH CONDITIONS?
PURPOSE
The purpose of this bill is to 1) narrow the Division of
Juvenile Justice's duty to accept a person committed to it by
requiring it have adequate facilities, staff, and programs to
provide care; and 2) repeal existing language specifying
individuals who must be accepted by the Division of Juvenile
Justice according to mental health conditions.
Existing law abolishes the California Youth Authority and
replaces it with the Division of Juvenile Justice ("DJJ"), a
division of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
(Governor's Reorganization Plan 1, 2005; SB 737 (Romero); Ch.
10, Stats. 2005.)
Existing law requires that when a court commits a ward to DJJ,
the court must send DJJ a summary of all of the facts in
possession of the court, covering the history of the ward
committed and a statement of the ward's mental and physical
condition. (Welfare and Institutions Code ("WIC") 735.)
Existing law requires DJJ to accept a person committed to it if
it believes that the person "can be materially benefited by its
reformatory and educational discipline, and if it has adequate
facilities to provide that care." (WIC 736 (a).)
This bill would revise this subdivision to additionally require
that DJJ also have adequate staff and programs to provide that
care.
Existing law additionally requires DJJ to accept a person
committed to it if staff and institutions are available, as
specified, "(1) if he is a borderline psychiatric or borderline
mentally deficient case, (2) if he or she is a sex deviate
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unless he or she is of a type whose presence in the community,
under parole supervision, would present a menace to the public
welfare, or (3) if he or she suffers from a primary behavior
disorder." (WIC 736(b).)
This bill repeals these provisions.
Existing law requires the Director of the Youth Authority and
the Director of Mental Health to confer and establish policy at
least annually with respect to the types of cases which should
be the responsibility of each department. (Id.)
This bill would revise this provision to require that DJJ and
the Department of Mental Health, as specified, "determine who is
best served by the Division of Juvenile Justice and who would be
better served by the State Department of Mental Health," as
specified.
This bill makes additional technical changes.
COMMENTS
1. Statement of Need
The author states:
Section 736 requires the California Youth
Authority (now the Division of Juvenile Justice)
to accept a person committed to it, if it believes
that person can be benefited by its program and
services. Additionally, subdivision (b) of the
section requires CYA to accept a person who is a
"borderline psychiatric" or "mentally deficient
case," a "sex deviate," or a person who suffers
from a "primary behavior disorder."
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Section 736 contains archaic language that is over
40 years old, and is no longer used by mental
health professionals or public policy makers in
determining mental health treatment needs for
youth committed to the state juvenile justice
system. Additionally, by specifically delineating
which types of mental health cases may be accepted
by the DJJ, the language may inadvertently
restrict the ability of the Department to accept,
or offer treatment to, youth with other mental
health or treatment needs. Finally, certain
individuals may have mental health needs beyond
the ability of the DJJ to provide successful
treatment; the language in Section 736 may hinder
the State of California's ability to appropriately
place such an individual in another treatment
program.
SB 1742 deletes the references to obsolete mental
health terminology, and instead provides that all
offenders accepted by DJJ shall be considered
based upon the ability of the Department to
provide successful treatment s and rehabilitative
services to that individual. Additionally, the
bill continues to require that the Director of DJJ
and the Director of Mental Health continue to
jointly develop policies on which cases shall be
accepted by each department.
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2. What This Bill Would Do
Currently, the Division of Juvenile Justice is required to
accept a person committed to it if it believes that the
person can be materially benefited by its services and if
it can provide adequate facilities for such care. (Welfare
and Institutions Code 736.) This bill would refine those
requirements to require adequate staff and programs as
well.
Existing provisions of Section 736 of the Welfare and
Institutions Code require the Youth Authority to accept
committed persons according to specified mental health
conditions. This bill would repeal these provisions, which
contain largely archaic and obsolete language.
This bill also refines - essentially technically - the
provisions in current law concerning annual conferring
between DJJ and the Department of Mental Health. As
amended by this bill, this provision would require
consideration of where wards might be best served with
respect to these two entities.
This bill also makes technical changes pertaining to the
reorganization noted above. Specifically, it would replace
"Youth Authority" in Section 736 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code with "Division of Juvenile Justice," and make related
conforming changes in accordance with GRP 1 of 2005.
The current head of the Division of Juvenile Justice is the
Chief Deputy Secretary of the Division of Juvenile Justice.
The author may wish to make a technical amendment to replace
"Chief Deputy Director" with "Chief Deputy Secretary" to
reflect the current structure.
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